FlyBig

Last updated

flybig
FlyBig Logo.svg
IATA ICAO Call sign
S9 [1] FLGKRIS
Founded2020
Commenced operations21 December 2020;4 years ago (2020-12-21)
Ceased operations13 December 2025;3 days ago (2025-12-13)
Fleet size4
Destinations24
Parent company Big Charter Private Limited
Headquarters Gurugram, Haryana, India
Key peopleCaptain Sanjay Mandavia (CMD)
Chander Bahadur (Head Financial Intelligence and Strategies)
FounderCaptain Sanjay Mandavia
Employees500
Website flybig.in OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

flybig was an Indian regional airline based in Gurugram, Haryana. [2] It was promoted by Gurugram-based Big Charter Private Limited. The airline began operations in December 2020 and focused on connecting tier-2 cities within India. [3] Prior to ceasing operations the airline operated in north and northwest India. [4] [5] [6]

Contents

History

The airline received a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and received its Air Operator's Certificate (AoC) on 14 December 2020, both necessary for starting commercial operations. It began operations with a single ATR-72-500. [7] The company's focus is to serve Tier-2 cities and it aims to build a fleet of more ATR-72s and Viking/ DHC Twin Otters, thus eventually expand to a fleet of 20 aircraft. [8]

Before the airline began scheduled flights, it got its first route under a government tender to serve Shillong from Delhi. The flights commenced on 21 December 2020 and to fulfil its obligations, the airline wet-leased a DHC-8 Q400 aircraft from SpiceJet. [9] The airline conducted proving flights on 4 December 2020, [10] and operated its first scheduled flight on 3 January 2021 from Indore to Ahmedabad. [11] As of March 2024, it has 11 destinations with a fleet of three aircraft covering 3 states.

In November 2023, FlyBig Airlines temporarily ceased operations in Arunachal Pradesh, citing supply chain challenges as the primary reason. [12]

In November 2025, it was reported that the Indian civil aviation authority had received an IDERA (Irrevocable Deregistration and Export Request Authorization) from AER Leasing Corp, the Japanese aircraft leasing company, which is the lessor of flybig's three Indian-registered DHC-6-400 Twin Otters. The aircraft have not performed any flights since October 2025 and are currently parked at Bhopal Airport. An IDERA request is a legal document which enables an aircraft lessor to have its aircraft deregistered and exported from a country if an airline defaults on lease payments. [13] [14] On 8 December, it was then reported that Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE Capital) had won a $1.1 million award from flybig due to the airline's failure to meet lease agreement obligations in relation to previously leased ATR 72 aircraft. [15] While flybig has not performed any flights since the aircraft were grounded in October, the company formally ceased operations on 13 December 2025, when its air operator's certificate (AOC) issued by India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) expired. [16]

Destinations

As of December 2024, FlyBig operates between the following destinations:

StateCityAirportNotesRefs.
Punjab Bathinda Bathinda Airport [17]
Ludhiana Ludhiana Airport [6]
Uttarakhand Dehradun Dehradun Airport [6]
Pithoragarh Pithoragarh Airport [18]
Pantnagar Pantnagar Airport [18]
Uttar Pradesh Aligarh Aligarh Airport [19]
Azamgarh Azamgarh Airport [19]
Chitrakoot Chitrakoot Airport [19]
Lucknow Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport [19]
Shravasti Shravasti Airport [19]
Ghaziabad Hindon Airport [19]
Moradabad Moradabad Airport [18]
Madhya Pradesh Rewa Rewa Airport [20]
Bhopal Raja Bhoj International Airport [20]
Khajuraho Khajuraho Airport [20]
Datia Datia Airport [20]
Chhattisgarh Raipur Swami Vivekananda Airport [21]
Ambikapur Ambikapur Airport [21]
Bilaspur Bilaspur Airport [21]

Fleet

The flybig fleet consists of the following aircraft as of December 2024: [22]


flybig fleet
AircraftIn serviceOrdersPassengersNotes
DHC-6-400 Twin Otter 4819 [23] [24]
Total48

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Aviation Codes Website - Airline Codes Full Details". www.avcodes.co.uk.
  2. ↑ "Airline and Location Code Search". www.iata.org. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  3. ↑ "flyBig likely to start ops from Raja Bhoj by year-end". The Times of India . 24 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  4. ↑ "FlyBig has changed its order with De Havilland for a more economical option: Sanjay Mandavia". Moneycontrol. 6 July 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  5. ↑ "FlyBig to launch Patna-Kol flight". The Times of India. 3 June 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 Jain, Nitin (4 September 2023). "Ludhiana gets Dehradun, Delhi air link from this week". The Tribune . Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  7. ↑ "HAL's Dornier is all set to get new wings, flybig wings". Bangalore Mirror. 31 August 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  8. ↑ "Starting an airline during COVID-19 may sound like a bad idea. But for flybig, it's a perfect flightplan". Moneycontrol.com. 26 August 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  9. ↑ "Direct Flight Services Between Shillong, Delhi Launched". NDTV.com. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  10. ↑ "Indore welcomes first Proving Flight of Fly Big Airlines, receives water cannon salute". The Free Press Journal . 4 December 2020. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  11. ↑ Desk, India com Business (1 January 2021). "flybig to Start Operations From January 3: All You Need to Know About India's New Airline". India News, Breaking News | India.com. Retrieved 2 January 2021.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  12. ↑ Singh, Bikash (17 November 2023). "FlyBig Airlines temporarily suspends operations in Arunachal Pradesh due to supply chain challenges". The Economic Times. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  13. ↑ Joshi, Ameya (7 November 2025). "DGCA gets IDERA request for deregistration of all three FlyBig aircraft". mint. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
  14. ↑ Ash, Paul (11 November 2025). "Lessor requests Indian CAA to deregister flybig Twin Otters". ch-aviation. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
  15. ↑ Sipinski, Dominik (8 December 2025). "DAE Capital wins $1.1mn award from India's flybig". ch-aviation. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
  16. ↑ "Directorate General of Civil Aviation" (PDF). Government of India. 15 January 2024. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
  17. ↑ Jha, Abhijay (14 September 2023). "Two routes to Punjab from Hindon terminal now, but services to Dehradun suspended". The Times of India . Retrieved 14 September 2023. Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann will formally inaugurate the route on September 18, Ratan Laxmanro Ambhore, the head of ground operations at Flybig, told TOI.
  18. 1 2 3 "Flight Schedule - March 2024" (PDF). FlyBig.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Now, direct flights from Lucknow to 6 UP cities". Times of India. 29 February 2024. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  20. 1 2 3 4 "First flight takes off: Now, new service connects Rewa to Bhopal & Khajuraho". www. timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 26 November 2024.
  21. 1 2 3 Sharma, Sheenu (19 December 2024). "flybig starts operation from raipur airport".
  22. ↑ "We are elated to add another family member to our ever-expanding 𝗳𝗹𝘆𝗯𝗶𝗴 fleet family. We warmly 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 our flying beauty 𝗧𝘄𝗶𝗻 𝗢𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 on Indian land. We are ready to make our 2 and 3 tier cities guests' journey easy & fast". FlyBig. 29 June 2023. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  23. ↑ "India's flybig eyes green Twin Otter -400s". ch-aviation. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  24. ↑ "x.com".
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